Cletus Hill
NOTE: This page is not free to edit. Characters are solely owned by ScottyBlue (dA name Ascotia-Bluefleck. Also, Spoilers below.) Cletus Marcellus Hill was the youngest child of the wealthy Elvira Hill, after his brother Jeremiah and sister Bess. He was shy, retiring, and preferred to avoid conflict whenever possible. However, he also had a strong sense of duty, and this oxymoron tended to cause him great indecision and stress in many matters. Cletus fell in love with Brenda Gilbert, a very sweet and much-maligned young widow, when he was young. Her mentally disturbed husband had committed suicide shortly after their marriage, and people wrongly suspected she had done away with him. Cletus knew this was a lie, but his snobbish mother didn't care whether it was true or not and didn't like him associating with anyone with a bad reputation. They agreed to stop seeing one another so Elvira wouldn't make trouble for them, Cletus went away to college, and Brenda, who was desperately lonely, reluctantly started dating another man, Luke Cromarty. Cletus' brother and sister both rebelled and married the people they loved instead of someone wealthy as their mother wished. Emboldened by this, Cletus returned from college resolved to stand up to her about Brenda, only to find Brenda with Luke, and decided as long as she was happy with the prominent businessman's son, he wouldn't interfere. He went away to World War I with his brother, later on, even though he really didn't feel up to fighting. He had hoped the army would put him at a desk job, but had no such luck, and was sent overseas to combat. He returned after having been captured by the enemy and proving himself brave under torture before he was rescued. However, the ordeal, and the death of Jeremiah in combat, broke him mentally and spiritually and he suffered from PTSD (then called shell-shock) ever afterwards. His weak mental state convinced him that Brenda, who had by now broken up with the shallow and vindictive Luke, would be better off without him since she had already dealt with a mentally ill husband. However, Brenda revealed she had broken up with Luke because she still loved Cletus, and worked with him to help him fight his PTSD. They dated in secret for years before coming out to Elvira as a couple. She was furious and forbade them the house for a time, but eventually relented. Luke Cromarty, however, was unhappy at being jilted, and as revenge blackmailed Brenda and Cletus by threatening to get her arrested for murdering her husband, saying all it needed was an eyewitness to come forward for the prejudiced town to convict her. When Cletus reminded him that he couldn't claim to be an eyewitness because he was out of town at the time Mr. Gilbert committed suicide, Luke shifted his focus to Cletus, telling Brenda that he would see to it Cletus was shut in the worst sanatorium he could find, for life, if she didn't do his bidding. Luke was well aware all he had to do was agitate Cletus enough to get his PTSD to cause him to lash out at him. Luke continued blackmailing them until he asked them to do something they could not do - help him ruin an innocent man's life. Brenda confronted Luke alone, against Cletus' wishes. When he found out what she had done, he panicked and tried to find her, fearing Luke would hurt her. When they met up again, she revealed Luke had tried to strangle her, so she had hit him and run away. Cletus excitably ran after Luke, though Brenda tried to stop him. Herb Cromarty, Luke's beloved father, was found dead minutes later. Both Cletus and Brenda came under suspicion of the crime, especially Brenda when it was revealed her argument with Luke was seen, though the young eyewitness thought it was Herb that was fighting with Brenda. She was acquitted, but the ordeal of the trial sent Cletus over the edge and into a sanatorium anyway. Brenda stayed by his side as much as she was allowed to, and when he was released they fled to South Carolina to get away from Luke Cromarty forever. There, they married, and lived happily for 16 years, having four children. Tragedy struck again when Brenda died of polio. A grieving Cletus received a letter shortly thereafter from his niece, Ruthanne, to say that she suspected Luke Cromarty had killed her brother Frankie, the eyewitness who had claimed to see Brenda fighting with Herb all those years before. She wanted to know once and for all if Brenda was the one who Frankie saw that night. Cletus, feeling horrible that he had never done anything to get Luke behind bars before, and fearing that their flight from Stearnsville might have cost his nephew his life, mustered his courage and went back to Stearnsville and met Ruthanne in person, to tell her the truth of what had happened that night. His confession got Ruthanne - and later the public - to see once and for all that Herb's death had been an accident and Luke had made it look like a murder to get people he didn't like in trouble. Cletus' mental health temporarily broke down again under the strain of reliving that awful night, but this time it was his children who helped him get through the dark place. He returned to South Carolina, where he lived out the rest of his days. Category:In Memory of Frankie Hill Characters